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yNorth Face of Soho : Unreliable Memoirs Volume 1VClive James,
London:Picador,2006Z13212952006single work autobiography Abstract'At the very end of May Week Was in June, we left our hero sitting beside the River Cam one beautiful 1968 spring day, jotting down his thoughts in a journal. Newly married and about to leave the cloistered world of Cambridge academia for the racier, glossier life promised by Literary London, he was, so he informed his journal, reasonably satisfied. With his criticism beginning to appear in magazines and newspapers such as the New Statesman, and his poetry published in Carcanet, as well as a play then being performed to rave reviews at the Arts Theatre, James had good reason to be content. But what happened next? This is the question posed, and answered by, North Face of Soho. Intelligent, amusing and provocative - the words apply to the man himself as much as his memoirs'. (Publisher's blurb)

'For many people, Clive James will always be a TV presenter first and foremost, and a writer second - this despite the fact that his adventures with the written word took place before, during and after his time on the small screen. Nevertheless, for those who remember clips of Japanese endurance gameshows and Egyptian soap operas, Clive reinventing the news or interviewing Hefner and Hepburn, Polanski and Pavarotti, Clive's Postcards from Kenya, Shanghai and Dallas, or Clive James Racing Driver, Clive's rightful place does seem to be right there - on the box, in our homes, and almost one of the family.

'However you think of him, though, and whatever you remember him for, The Blaze of Obscurity is perhaps Clive's most brilliant book yet. Part Clive James on TV and part Clive James on TV, it tells the inside story of his years in television, shows Clive on top form both then and now, and proves - once and for all - that Clive has a way with words... whatever the medium.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

The Red Frog Prince : A Fairytale About the Shifting Social Status of SugarToni Risson,
2010single work criticism — Appears in:
TEXT : Special Issue Website Series,October
no.
92010;Abstract'Once upon a time, sugar was a magical substance in an ordinary world. When it
became cheap and readily available in the mid-nineteenth century, sugar and sugar
confectionery became part of the ordinary diet, and have since fallen to the status of
junk food, and, more recently, poison. But children relate to lollies at the level of
imagination, so lollies are a vital part of the wonder of childhood and retain for
children the magical cultural status once attributed to them. Allen’s red jelly frogs
are banned from school tuckshops, but they play a noble role in opening doors for
youth chaplains during the notorious Schoolies Week. Furthermore, the humble
lolly descends from the elaborate sugarwork that once featured in royal banquets; it
was noble all along. Lollies are no longer on the menu, and they do not even fit into
food categories, but judgements based on food value alone fail to take into account
the magical role they play in children’s lives and ignore the ways in which health
authorities, artists, and advertisers use confectionery. Lollies have more in common
with fairytales than food. The Frog Prince—a fairytale about a royal son who is
turned into an ugly frog by a wicked enchantress and then rescued through his
relationship with a child—is a metaphor for red frog lollies. This paper examines
red frogs as sites of transformation, thereby repositioning sugar confectionery as
magic and challenging dominant narratives that reduce the complexity of lollies and
their cultural significance.' (Author's abstract)

The Red Frog Prince : A Fairytale About the Shifting Social Status of SugarToni Risson,
2010single work criticism — Appears in:
TEXT : Special Issue Website Series,October
no.
92010;Abstract'Once upon a time, sugar was a magical substance in an ordinary world. When it
became cheap and readily available in the mid-nineteenth century, sugar and sugar
confectionery became part of the ordinary diet, and have since fallen to the status of
junk food, and, more recently, poison. But children relate to lollies at the level of
imagination, so lollies are a vital part of the wonder of childhood and retain for
children the magical cultural status once attributed to them. Allen’s red jelly frogs
are banned from school tuckshops, but they play a noble role in opening doors for
youth chaplains during the notorious Schoolies Week. Furthermore, the humble
lolly descends from the elaborate sugarwork that once featured in royal banquets; it
was noble all along. Lollies are no longer on the menu, and they do not even fit into
food categories, but judgements based on food value alone fail to take into account
the magical role they play in children’s lives and ignore the ways in which health
authorities, artists, and advertisers use confectionery. Lollies have more in common
with fairytales than food. The Frog Prince—a fairytale about a royal son who is
turned into an ugly frog by a wicked enchantress and then rescued through his
relationship with a child—is a metaphor for red frog lollies. This paper examines
red frogs as sites of transformation, thereby repositioning sugar confectionery as
magic and challenging dominant narratives that reduce the complexity of lollies and
their cultural significance.' (Author's abstract)